Cape Town - Shortly after the Stellenbosch University council decided to withdraw an investigation against council member Piet le Roux on Monday night, he repeated his views on transformation on Twitter, stating: “#DownWithTransformania”.
Remarks made by Le Roux caused a stir on Twitter earlier this year and led to the council appointing a committee to investigate his conduct and remarks.
At the time he tweeted: “Blade Nzimande en #transformanie gaan nie wen nie. Ondersteun die Afrikaanse Alumni-vereniging. (Blade Nzimande and transformania won’t win. Support the Afrikaanse Alumni Association.”
In a statement on Tuesday, George Steyn, chairman of the university council, said the council had on Monday retracted an earlier decision (of September 2015) to appoint a committee to investigate Le Roux’s conduct and remarks, and the council had considered the matter closed.
He didn’t say why the decision had been taken.
After the meeting Le Roux posted on Twitter: “Die US-Raad het vanaand die ondersoek teen my herroep. Oorwinning vir academiese vryheid. So, hier’s dit weer: #DownWithTransformania” (Tonight the SU council withdrew their investigation against me. Victory for academic freedom. So here it is again: DownWithTranformania).
Reaction on Twitter included support for Le Roux, but some users reacted with shock to the council’s decision.
“@StellenboschUni tell me again how someone who shares these sentiments about transformation is suitable for council,” was one response.
Steyn said: “With regard to transformation, it was with great disappointment and displeasure that I learnt that Mr Piet le Roux had repeated his earlier statement about transformation in higher education (#DownWithTransformania) on social media, shortly after Monday’s scheduled council meeting.”
Referring to Monday’s motion accepted by council with regard to language at the institution, Steyn said council had stated that language should never be an obstacle to any student who wants to study at the university.
“We have requested management to put the necessary mechanisms in place to ensure that there would not be any exclusion based on language. Council has committed itself to support management if the English offering were to exceed the set target.
“In practice, this means that management would like to provide full support in English to students who have an insufficient command of Afrikaans, without it being to the detriment of the Afrikaans academic offering.”
Open Stellenbosch spokeswoman Ijeoma Opara said they were disappointed with the decisions.
Cape Argus
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